Get focused

Sort your shape

“The first thing you need to do is get your team shape right before the manager makes his substitutions. Switch to a 4-4-1 because the opposition are going to dominate possession and you need to make sure you’re solid and hard to break down. Put someone up top who has energy and can hold the ball up to relieve the pressure when you clear your lines.”

Talk to your team-mates

“Last season we were playing Millwall at home and Kevin Nolan got sent off after nine minutes. James Tomkins was playing alongside me in midfield. He’s an intelligent player, but primarily he’s a centre-back so I talked him through the game, telling him to keep going and where to position himself. We went on to win the game 2-1.”

More after the break

There’s always more in the tank

“It’s easy to say ‘I worked as hard as I could’ but you can always work that bit harder. If you walked out into the car park after the game and someone was running off with your kids you wouldn’t stop running until you caught them – you know you can always run harder. We had six players sent off last season, but everyone dug in and we got the results.”

Be brave in attack

“Press as a team and when you’re attacking, get your centre-backs to push as high up as possible so you condense the pitch and make it as small as possible. You need to be brave, but also have players that are clever enough to fill in for each other. You can still win the game. Last season Robert Green got sent off against Blackpool after 53 minutes, but we managed to win 4–1.”

How to win with 10 men

Your psychotic team-mate has just seen red. What to do? Stay calm and channel FFT’s experts